Good Wednesday to you! Today is a packed scrappy day for me. I have 3 reveals for you, which actually means 3 different posts! Be sure to check them all. I'm pretty happy with my creations.

Child's Play Challenges & Club CK May/June Issue Challenge #3 post can be found here
Sketches with Color post can be found here

I think I'll go alphabetically, so that means I'll begin with my page for the newest About a Boy challenge: create a page using only White and one other color.

I had already chosen this photo. It's another great one that my sister took. It's quirky, like the expression on his face as well as the mood he was in. Because his shirt is navy, I could pretty much choose any color to complement the photo. I have been pushing myself to go beyond my obvious. So I decided not to use red, green or blue and went with ORANGE!

I found this fabulous sketch over at Pagemaps, and the rest was easy peasy. Ok, I had to decide how much orange was too much and scale back on the embellishments. I tried to let the papers and the photos speak for themselves, without overwhelming them with extra orange bits!

I hope you will create and share something at About a Boy , using the idea of white and one color to highlight something about your boy.

Supplies:
CS-Bazzill
PP-Simple Stories
Mist-Tattered Angels
Brads-Basic Grey, Making Memories
Buttons and clear gems-random
Twine-Doodlebug
Wood Veneer-Recollections
Washi-Target

Pretty Little Things

Good Morning!  I am so excited to be able to share with you my first reveal as one of the talented group of Mavens at Sketches in Thyme

Here is the sketch:

And here is my LO:

The photos are of the tulips in my garden, This is the first time in my life, I've had a flower garden.  But if you know me, I have neither the interest nor the time for gardening.  I don't do dirt and bugs.  I just like to enjoy the flowers. So tulips are kind of perfect for me. Fairly low maintenance, except for chasing the bunnies away.

I kept the sketch the same, but added a few extra embellishments. This is a bit of a departure for me in a couple of ways.  First, I use mostly 4x6 photos.  I challenged myself NOT to go ahead and do that here, and instead printed these out in 3x4. (I am finding it so much easier to do now that I have my little photo printer).  Second, I chose to do a very "girly" page, using flowers as the subject, but also in the paper selection. And pink. Lots of pink. This is something I don't do often, as most of my pages are about my two boys.  It was fun to play with "pretty little things".

I hope you will join us this week over at  Sketches in Thyme.

Supplies:

PP-Crate Paper and embellishments

Alphas-Thickers, Sassafrass, OA

stencil-Crafters Workshop

Mist-Heidi Swapp

More Fantastic News!

For a long time, I had admired the Sketches in Thyme blog, but hadn't played along.  Well, a few months ago, I finally began to play and I haven't looked back since. I love their sketches!  Recently, there was a Design Team call so I decided to apply.

I am so thrilled to announce that I was asked to join the team as a Sketchy Maven!

This is the LO that I entered. It was a really fun sketch and pushed me to tilt instead of my usual straight lines.  More information about this LO can be found here

I am excited to be a part of this talented team. I truly hope you will join in the fun at Sketches in Thyme, and use some of these great sketches to inspire you as they have me!

GO CUBS! (part 2 of...)

Please go here for Sketches With Color post

Yes, I am a Cubs fan.  So yes, there will be many GO CUBS pages, so there will be part, 3, 4, etc....  What makes that fun is that is a part of who we are. I get to document my son and his different stages of interest in Baseball. Sadly, it didn't last very long.  But  I have fun pictures that go with the memories.

This was the big "sign writing" stage that my son was in. He was in 2nd grade. He knew how to write fairly well. He was so into his markers.  He was always writing, drawing, coloring.  I love that he decided to make a sign to take to the game.  Why am I telling you this you ask?

It's May 1 and that means a new challenge is up at About a Boy. Today's challenge: Boys will be Boys. My older son isn't really the 'rough and tumble' type of boy. He's always been the creative type. I love that these photos capture who he is as well as him doing a typical boy thing.  Now my younger son, well, that's a Boys will be Boys story for another day....

For Father's Day, we gave Dad tickets to the game, as well as a personalized brick that would be placed on the new walkway in front of Wrigley Field.  We had received a letter with our copy of the brick, telling us how to find the one at Wrigley.  I think I was as excited as they were about going to the game!

I realized as I was working on this page that I am running out of baseball themed papers! I started with a Creating Keepsakes sketch, grabbed what baseball stuff I could find, and just put the page together.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Regardless of the type of boy you have, I'm sure you have photos of them doing what makes them who they are.  Grab them and come play along at About a Boy!

Supplies:
PP-SEI, Fancy pants
CS-Bazzill
Die Cuts & Stickers-Fancy Pants
Cubs logo-EK Success
Alphas-Thickers by AC
brads-making memories

My Tech Junkie

Please go here for About a Boy post

Hey there!  Today is my first reveal for Sketches With Color!  I'm really excited about this challenge blog. I can interpret a sketch, no problem. I can use a color scheme, no problem. Combine them, now that's a creative challenge I'm ready to tackle!

Here is the May 1 sketch and color inspiration. This time around, choose 3 of the colors for the LO.

Here is my LO.  I used Poppy Red, Sunflower and Grayed Jade.  Because I got to choose the colors,  I purposely decided not to use red, blue and yellow. They are my go to colors, that I use often.  I actually decided on the colors, after I chose the papers.  Again, not something I would ordinarily do.  I flipped the sketch to a more horizontal design, it worked better with the photos I chose to use.  The premise of the design pretty much remained the same.  

I'm on this kick of using PP only and it's been kind of fun.  Not only am I using PP only, it seems to be the same manufacturer, many times even the same collection.  I think I'm finding when I don't have a lot of creative free time, the garanimals approach is perfect.  It save me time from looking through my stash to find this paper here and that paper there.  These papers and embellishments are all Kaiserkraft.  The theme of the papers were great for the photos and the colors were right off my color chart.

I hope you will follow me in my new creative endeavor at Sketches With Color, and even play along with us there as well.

Guess Who?

It's me again!  Just kidding.  I love playing that game. Speaking of games...The Classic Game Challenge is up at Child's Play Challenges.  Did you guess what it is?  It's Guess Who?

Here is the LO I created inspired by the game

I thought Halloween photos were the perfect way to go, especially because of the ghost!  This was the worst Ghost costume ever. He hated it. But I do have to remind every so often, that he didn't like the two small eye holes and wanted a bigger face hole...

Anyway, you get it...costumes=Guess Who?...I started with a Scrapbook Generation sketch for this one. I keep all my Halloween stuff tougher so it was easy to find supplies quickly.  A few cuts and pastes, some stickers and mist and I was finished.  I know not everyone likes theme papers, but I find they make it easier and faster to get pages done!

I hope to see you playing along at Child's Play Challenges

Supplies-

CS-Bazzill

PP-SEI, American Crafts, Echo Park

Die cuts-SEI

Chipboard elements-American Crafts

Stickers-Echo Park

A Small Announcement

Good Morning!  I just have a little exciting news to share today.  I am so very pleased to tell you that I have been invited to join the Sketches with Color  Design Team.  

This will be a fun challenge for me.   My go to colors whenever I start a page are red, blue and yellow, so this will push my color boundaries tremendously. It will be interesting for me to see if having a sketch as a starting place will make it easier or not.  We shall see.  

I hope you will join me and the rest of the talented team and play along at Sketches with Color.  Challenges are posted on the 1st and 15th of the month and you have the entire month to enter your LOs.

Our Jackson Pollock

One of the best things about all of the challenge blogs, is I'm constantly finding new ideas. Case in point, today's new challenge at About a Boy:   Use your son's artwork on your page.  I probably wouldn't have done this without some prodding, at least not right now.

So here it is.  My younger son made this a few years ago. I know he had a lot of help, but I like that it feels like him.  And I know he likes paint.   For some reason, I decided to take a photo of it instead of keeping the original.  I've only done that a few other times.  

I wanted to keep the focus on the photo.  I decided to use grey as a neutral and kept it simple with small patterns and similar colors from the photo. I did bring in some contrasting colors because it was looking blah. The green and the orange helped bring the focus back to the photo. I also have to say, that thanks to this assignment, I was able to use something I've had in my stash for a very long time...the title.  Lastly, I had to use paint splatters, didn't I????

That's all for now. I hope you will stop by About a Boy and try your hand at scrapping your son's artwork.

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

PP-Fancy Pants, MME

Die Cut Title-MME

Stickers-Creative Memories, Fancy Pants

Twine-Doodlebug

Mist-Studio Calico

Sketch by Christy Strickler

Shop 'til We Drop

Getting a little scrap time in during our "stay-cation" spring break week. Trying to catch up on some favorite challenge spots, get a little ahead on some DT work, as well as just working on my own stuff.  Today's LO is inspired by Sketch With Color and Club CK Issue Challenge #5, use a photo prop.  Here is the color scheme I was to work with:

And here is my LO.  Spending the day at CKC Portland with some friends was the ideal opportunity to use a photo prop...and to get my hands on some of the new releases I'd been drooling over.  

Lately, I've been pushing myself to play with color.  I tend to repeat my blue, red, yellow brown.  So color challenges are a great place for me to start.  Add a sketch in and what more do I really need?  I used both scraps and new stuff on this page, and no cardstock at all.  The background paper is the reverse side of a print I probably never would have used.  I decided that darkish color was a dark steel bluish/greyish color.  It's really hard to tell.  So the striped paper is more navy, but the stitching is more steel grey in color.  I did omit the oval shape PP and kept the squared off paper instead, but kept to the sketch for the most part. 

Supplies: PP-Crate Paper, Fancy Pants, Doodlebug, DCWV; stickers-Fancy Pants; dots-MME; alphas-October Afternoon, Fancy Pants; thread-DMC; Ink-ColorBox

Life is Sweet

Yippee...Scrap time this weekend! I had a few pages on my agenda and I got two of them finished so far.  But I only have one to share today.  When I don't have consistent time to scrap, I feel like I lose my place.   What I mean is, I forget the ideas I had in my head or what I wanted to work on next.  When this happens, I will browse through some of the many challenge blogs looking for inspiration.

Today's LO was inspired by three different blogs: Scrap Our Stash gave me the idea for the papers, dots and stripes...Umm, yes, I have just a little bit of those in my stash....Next is Frosted Designs for reminding me that yes, scallops are also in my stash....and lastly, Sketches in Thyme for their lovely sketch #107.

I also need to mention that Sketches in Thyme is having a Design Team call.  I am throwing my name in the hat this time around. I've been really enjoying their sketches since I found them In Dec.  They are clear, easy to interpret, and are both single and multi photo.

This photo is my older son being the "big cousin".  The two little guys just wanted to do everything he was doing.  After a walk on the pier, we took them for ice cream.  They all got the same thing...Blue Superman ice cream.  

I could't think of any better paper than what I chose.  Last spring I started buying more collections as opposed to just a few pieces of paper here and there.  My thought was that I'd have an easier time selecting my supplies when I started a page.  Well, yes, that is exactly what happened here.  I used both sides of 2 papers and the chipboard embellishments.  I opted not to add an additional title, just using the "Life is Sweet" on the chipboard.  I hesitated only for a moment about using the stripe scallop piece on top of the stripe paper, but I really like the way it looks. It gave it fun dimension.

Thanks for inspiring me, visiting my blog and taking a look. 

Supplies: PP-MME and Doodlebug, Chipboard and tape-MME, Stickles

New Car

Yes, that's correct. Two posts this week.  That's because I have another new challenge for you. This time it's brought to you courtesy of Child's Play Challenges. Today's post is the Classic Toy Challenge:Matchbox Cars

Oddly enough, these were not high on my boys priority list of things to play with.  My older son had a truck full of them. Literally. It was a toy semi truck with slots for cars on the sides of the trailer.  You want to know what he did most often when he did play with them?  He sorted them by color, parts of the cars that moved, 2 door, 4 door....get the idea?  Rarely did he ever play with them as just, well, cars. Needless to say, I don't have many photos of him playing with cars. Those that I do, I have already scrapped.  So, here is what I did instead:

I took this photo when I picked up my car on Dec 29, 2010.  It was a huge moment for me.  I had done (almost) everything by myself to get this car.  It's a big step up from my previous car, with all the bells and whistles.  I have to say, I earned this one....
I started with a sketch from Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge.  (I know the challenge is over, but I wanted to credit them anyway).  I also drew inspiration from Get It Scrapped/Debbie Hodge.  I grabbed some color and some neutrals an went to town, but still kept it simple.  I've really been liking subtly printed papers as backgrounds for my LO's lately.  I tried something new here as well. I used a 12x12 stencil as the template for the stitching, as well as using it with ink pads to do the circles and the circle bursts behind the photo.  I repeated the PP at the top left, adhering it with some washi tape, then repeated the tape in the title at the lower right After adding a few chipboard pieces and some ink splatters, I was done.

I hope to see you playing along at Child's Play Challenges this week.

Supplies:
PP-SEI, MME, Tape-Recollections, Stencil-Crafters Workshop, Ink-VersaMagic, ColorBox, Thread-DMC, chipboard pieces-MME, Alphas-Thickers, Mists-Studio Calico, Tattered Angels

Crazy for Chevrons

Well, It's that time again...It's April 1 so that means it's time for another challenge at About a Boy! Today's challenge is to use chevrons on a page about that special guy in your life. ALright. Easy enough!  I have plenty of chevrons in my stash.  Hmmm, so where should I start?  Patterned paper? Washi tape? A stencil or die cut?  Well, I started with this awesome Inspired Blueprints Sketch #86  and went on from there.  I had so much fun with this page. It's one of those that make me smile. I love every little thing on  it.

I started with patterned paper, then the details fell into place rather quickly.  I decided to use a small pattern for the canvas base.  Plain CS was a little flat and I didn't like the way it looked.  Since there are multiple colors in the photo, I chose to use a multi colored chevron.  It gave me more flexibility for colors with the embellishments.  I used a tonal pattern paper next. But it looked empty, so I added a couple of strips of washi tape, aimed at the photo.  Empty no more.  I'm not a doily person.  Having boys, I can't find a whole lot of use for them.  But circles I can work with.  I cut the circles from another piece of patterned paper, then stitched around them to mimic more chevrons.  Doing that actually created some repetition of that pattern.  Then came the embellishments. Since the chevrons and colors are so bold, I kept them to a minimum. Two stickers at the corners of the photo that enhance the thought of sleep in the photo.  I stuck some pins in them that run right into the splattering of not only paint, but brads and some wood veneer stars.  The title is actually the last few words of the journaling.

Come join us this go around at About a Boy and show us what you can do with chevrons and your boys!

Supplies:

PP-Echo Park, Scenic Route, Studio Calico (I think), Washi-Echo Park, Brads-Making Memories, Mist& wood veneer-Studio Calico, Pins-MME, Stickers-Cosmo Cricket, Stitch template-Bazzill, Thread-DMC, Alphas-OA and Thickers

A Drop in My Bucket

Well, I got to complete only one LO this week. But one is better than none and I really like it, so add bonus points!  A lot of thought went into this LO.  Sometimes when that happens, I over think and get lost, but not this time.  I had a clear vision in my head, I stuck to the general idea, but embellished it a little...haha I crack myself up.

The inspiration for the idea comes from Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge---Bucket Lists.  I've been wanting to play along there since they started about a year ago. I keep looking at their challenges, but just haven't played along.  Seeing as this is my month of challenge blogs, it's time to give them a whirl.  Some of the design ideas came from Club CK Issue Challenge #3, Get messy with paints, inks, sprays etc...I also was intrigued by the current challenge at Frosted Designs, Up, up and away.

I wrote down a list of things to put into my "bucket" last summer, but never created a page about it.  This was the perfect opportunity. I grabbed this photo of me taken on my 40th birthday.  (Appropriate yes?)  I wanted to use some new paper and this stencil, so I decided to make the speech bubbles the place to write some of the things on my list.  I misted the background as well as tracing some of the bubbles, cutting them out, them misting them in multiple colors that worked with the paper.  When I adhered the speech bubbles, I put them slightly off the ones underneath so you could still see the misted background ones.  I added wood veneers that work with each item on my list and used ink pads to color them.  I purposely left one bubble in each cluster blank so I could use embellishments to enhance the theme.  The person on the escalator and chevrons pointing up are my interpretation of Up, up and away.  They play off my thoughts about my children growing up.  Adding the tape at the top and bottom gave me a chance to complement the color blue in the title and add the faux stitching does the same.  Thanks for all the inspiration.  This turned out to be a fun LO to out together.

Supplies-

CS-Pulp paper, DCWV

PP-Studio Calico

Mist-Fireworks, Studio Calico, Tattered Angels, Heidi Swapp

Stencil & Wood Veneer-Studio Calico

Alphas-Studio Calico and Basic Grey

Die Cuts-Cricut

Inks-ColorBox

Washi-WRMK & MME

Pens-EK Success

Shamrock Shaken

I got some scrap time this weekend and I made the most of the time I had!  So I've kind of determined that this month is "The Month of the Challenge Blogs"  Almost every LO I've done his month has been inspired by a challenge blog.  Either an idea, product, sketch or any combination has contributed to my creativity.  Like i said in an earlier post this month, that's where I jump start my mojo when I don't get consistent time to create.

Today's credit goes to Sketches in Thyme.  I used sketch #105.  I started using their sketches in Dec and have been playing along there ever since.

We aren't big McD's family. My son would rather get a sandwich than a burger.  So I really couldn't remember if he'd ever had a Shamrock Shake.  Everyone needs to have a Shamrock Shake at some point right?  There was no school last Friday. We had all kinds of icky errands to do, so I decided we needed to do something fun. (Ok, I'd actually been planning this for over a week, but he didn't know that). We were talking about what to get for lunch as I pulled into Mc D's drive through. He gave me such a funny look until he heard me order the shakes.  This is the grin I got from him afterwards.

I kept the general idea of the sketch the same, but changed the photo size. I played with paper sizes and patterns then went a little crazy with color.  I had to mimic St. Paddy's day, with the green and the rainbows! There is lots to look at in terms of color and pattern, but it all seems to work together.  

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill smooth

PP-LYB, Scenic Route, Kaisercraft

Tapes-MME, Doodlebug, Recollections

Twine-MME

Stitch template-Bazzill

Chipboard-Scenic Route

Alphas-Thickers AC

Mist-Fireworks

Spring Sarcasm

If you know me, you know that I try to find humor in something, every day.  I also rarely scrap the "things" around me.  Well, today I did both!  I scrapped a photo that I never in a million years would have thought to do if it weren't for sarcasm, humor, and a little extra inspiration from Sketches With Color.  Thanks to Lain Ehman and Twisted Tuesdays,  I also decided to be a detective in my own life.  I took some photos of spring blooming around me, and created my LO using Sketches in Thyme sketch #104.

This is the color scheme I had to work with:

And here is what I created:

The Terrible, Horrible, NoGood, Very Bad Haircut

I have had the absolute worst time finding a good salon and great stylist since moving here.  It's been one mediocre haircut after another.  This one took the cake though.  I won't go into the details, but let's just suffice to say that I have curly hair....

I dont know why, but when I saw the sketch & colors I wanted to use this photo.  Well, I knew it had to be something about me.  (Because again, if you know me, you know having boys, I hardly ever get to use pink on my pages).  Once again, I went to my scraps bin and grabbed papers that matched as closely as possible.  And once again, it fell into place quite quickly.  I wanted to play on the sarcasm and also add a bit of anger.  Sarcasm is everywhere.  The title, the speech bubbles and the colors actually too.  The anger comes in with the capitol letters, the spray mist, the staples, the chevrons, and well, the sarcasm!  BTW, this is the second time I've use this sketch.  You can find the first version here

Supplies:

CS-PULP papers

PP-MME, Creative imaginations, Doodlebug, Basic Grey, 

Alphas-Simple Stories & OA

Wood veneer-Recollections

Mist-Tattered Angels

Twine & Washi-MME

staples

Then to calm myself down, I created this calm and serene page about all the plants blooming in my yard.  I'm really not someone who does this very often, but I do appreciate watching the plants and trees wake up.  We planted tulips and daffodils for the first time.  I've been watching them daily.  I checked out another blog I've been stalking, Twisted Tuesdays.  Their challenge was to create something "spring like" and the "twist is to use or be green".  I tried really hard to upcycle and use a tag from a pair of my son's pants, but I couldn't get it to work.  The photos and title are plenty to qualify for the challenge though.

It's not easy Getting Green

I tried a new app on my phone to create this photo collage. I'm experimenting with odd sized photos.  It's a departure from my standard 4x6, and I wanted to try out this sketch #104 from Sketches in Thyme 

I chose to use kraft papers for a couple of reasons.  One is because it's a great neutral and works well with the photos, but also because Scrap Our Stash challenge this month is to Kraft it Up.  This was a great excuse to use up some printed kraft papers I received in a prize.  I stayed pretty true to the sketch, but I changed the circular element to another rectangle and added brads instead, as well as some top and bottom border treatments. I should have stopped with the brown mist.  The green came out too splotchy, but it still looks ok.

Supplies-

PP-Pebbles, Memory box

Banner stickers-Sassafrass

tape-Glitz

Alphas-Cosmo Cricket and Simple Stories

Brads-Making Memories

Mist-Tattered Angels, Studio Calico

Three Santas

Well, I'm a little out of season, but that's how I scrap.  I do work chronologically. Well, I print my photos that way and then grab photos from within that time period as I feel like scrapping them.  So, I am currently in 2007 photos.  I've always loved this photo, even though it is really poor quality.  When it's the only one you got, you make it work (thanks Tim Gunn).

This week's challenge over at About a Boy is to use your scraps on a page about that boy in your life.  Lucky me, I got to scrap all three of them at one time.  I even got to use a sketch from another blog I've been stalking for a while Let's Get Sketchy.  I used the week one sketch with the bonus color challenge.

I challenged myself. We don't take a lot of Christmas photos, so this color combo is really a stretch for me.  I went to my scraps bin and pulled out some goldish yellow, olive green and red scraps.  I used a new stencil and misted in green and white.  I've had these buttons for years, so I was very happy to finally use them.  I also had a few gold sticker gems left, so I polished those off as well.  Lastly, I added a little washi above and below the photo to ground it.  I though it was getting lost into the PP.  

I looked at them and thought "three amigos", but changed it to 'santas' instead.  Using scraps made this page some together very quickly.  Hope you will join us at About a Boy this week

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill, Bazzill dotted Swiss

PP-SEI, American Crafts

Tape-Glitz Designs

Buttons-unknown

Gold gems-MAMBI

Stencil-Crafters workshop

Mist-Studio Calico

Alphas-Sassafrass

pen-Sakura

Pawsing to Play

I had a little bit of time to play this weekend so I did some scrappy stuff I needed to so as well as some stuff I wanted to do. I even did a small amount of shopping (shhhh).

I've been really inspired by a bunch of challenges lately. I seem to go in spurts that way, usually when I don't get a lot of consistent time to scrap.  When I do finally get some time, I've lost my place, or worse yet my mojo.  This LO is a result of three such challenges.  The sketch is Inspired Blueprints #85, the idea comes from both Scrap Your Story, use an animal and True XoXo Scrapbooking, use phone photos.

Pausing to Play

This is a game my younger son has played for years.  He closes the door and waits for us to play with him.  We get on the floor and peek under the door, stick fingers back & forth and listen to him giggle uncontrollably. This time, Snickers sat with me while we played, only I don't think he liked it very much.  I'm fairly certain Snickers thought something was wrong because the door was closed and he couldn't see my sone on the floor.  All he heard were the sounds and saw me on the floor.  Snickers was much happier after I opened the door!  

So what's the best camera I had at that time?  My phone.  I don't use Instagram (gasp).  I just print 4x6 and use those.  Can't tell the difference can you?  The colors in the photos are really neutral.  I grabbed  some Echo Park and went to town with it.  All I added was a little bit of Glitz and MME washi tape, then splattered a bit of Studio Calico and Tattered Angels  mist.

I enjoyed putting this together.  Glad to have somewhere to begin!

XLV

I am on a roll.  3rd post this week.  I think I need to so this more often.  I'm finding writing very therapeutic this week.  Anyway, I'm taking advantage of an opportunity today.  Sketches With Color has a design team call going on.  I decided to throw my name in the hat.  I'm finding that having DT assignments, gives me a good reason to scrap!

I go in spurts when it comes to using sketches. I'm in one of those spurts right now. I've not been inspired by the photos I have printed, so sketches are really helping with a starting point.  Some I follow exactly, others I change a lot of elements.

Part of the DT application is to use their sketch provided.  Here is the sketch:

Here is my LO

Do you remember your Roman Numerals? I hope so, or you won't get the title of my LO.  It's a great sketch. One I can use over and over by changing around the orientation, and supplies.  Here, I did change the photo and papers to horizontal.  I also used a larger photo, 5x7.  

This photo was taken on my birthday last year.  I just wanted a casual day with my family. We were lucky to have a day nice enough to go to the park.  I went Garanimals with my supplies on this page.  (Ooh, did I just show my age???) Anyone else remember Garanimals?  Ok, well, it means that everything is from the same collection so its easy to put together.  In this case, it's one of my favorite collections from Basic Grey called PB&J.  The colors and patterns are so versatile, especially for all the boy scrapping I do.  But it also works so well even with me in the photo. The only other supplies are some washi tape by Recollections & Darice and AC Thickers.

So wish me luck, and if you haven't already, go take a peek at Sketches with Color

Z..Z..Zonked....

A friend of mine let me know about a new challenge blog that she is a part of called Scrap Your Story.  I like to support my friends so I decided to check it out.  It looks like it will be a lot of fun.  The inaugural challenge is to create a page with only one photo.  Great. I've really been enjoying one photo pages lately.

I love this photo of my younger son so much that I printed it 5x7...about 4 years ago....and it's been sitting in a box ever since.  I know, I know.  He's asleep.  I have many photos of him asleep. I have scrapped many pages of him asleep.  But this one is at 3:00 in the afternoon on the second day of school. Kindergarten. All day Kindergarten.  He was sitting on the couch.  He got very quiet.  I went to check on him....I guess it was a long day for him....

I have a slight washi tape addiction right now, so I am trying to use it a lot...to justify having so much!  Actually, it's so versatile, I find it really easy to use.  I'm also enjoying mist and splattering.  A way of letting go of the control.  The rest is older and newer supplies mixed together.  Oh, and head over to ClubCk, specifically the Sketch It Out Challenge for this great sketch!

Well, good luck to Scrap Your Story!  I'll be looking at your next challenge!

Supplies:

PP-Pebbles and MME

Die Cuts-MME

Tape-Recollections, Darice

dots-MME

wood veneer & paint-Studio Calico

Alpha-AC Thickers

Multi Purposing

Well It's Wednesday.  The only day of the week with no kidtivities.  Phew!  It's also the day a new challenge is up at Child's Play Challenges and the new Issue Challenge is up at Club CK. Well fancy that.  It's my turn for both!

First up is my LO for Child's Play Challenge, Classic Toy Challenge.  Oh I was soooooo excited to see what my inspiration was:

I love Sesame Street.  It's been a favorite in our home for many many years.  I guess one of the good things about having a child with special needs is that certain stages last longer.  Therefore Sesame Street  is still a part of our life. I'll be sad and excited when he moves on.  It will mean he's growing, but it will also mean no more Sesame.  Some of the best characters ever are on that show.  Here is my LO

5 Candles

I have to say this was an easy one for me.  I already had these photos printed of my younger son's 5th Birthday party.  He loved Elmo then, as he still does today.  I made the cake for him.  He recognized Elmo right away.  Since I had just received my Scrapbook Generation monthly kit, I decided to use the papers, but I also decided to use a different SG sketch for it.  I went off of my own ideas for the rest of the detail and embellishments.

This week for the Club CK Issue Challenge I noticed a trend that's been rising lately...Cursive Fonts as titles.  Now I know this has a lot to do with the popularity of the Silhouette, but there are so many other ways to add cursive to a page!

Now You See Me, Now You Don't

I found these photos recently and had completely forgotten about them.   This is the only title that came to mind when I saw the photos.  My entire title is in cursive. I used tiny letters (that are hard to read) as well as two different Thickers fonts.  I decided to play a bit with the Thickers, making one more visible than the other (kinda like my belly in the photos).  

In keeping with my trying new things and places this year, I've used a sketch from Inspired BluePrints for my Club CK page.  I will also be entering this over at Challenge Me Happy.  I've wanted to try them out for a while.  Their Anything Goes Challenge, was a good opportunity this week. Lastly, this is my entry for Frosted Designs-Chevrons.

I know this was long, thanks for reading.  Hope you will come and play this week at Child's Play Challenges and also at Club CK.

The Playoffs

Yup. Two posts in one week. I might get back to form...sometime during the summer...Just kidding.  I'd like to post  at three times a week, but for now I'll settle for two.

Today's LO is brought to you courtesy of About a Boy.  Today is March 1 and that means time for a new challenge: Use old products, (at least one year old), on your page.  Well, that was easy enough.  I have stuff in my stash that I've had for 5+ years...(I probably should use that stuff...).

Anyway, I decided to go sports for this one.  I know I've had these papers for almost 3 years.  I bought them right before we moved in 2010.

I adapted a sketch from Scrapbook Generation.  Thanks to them, I realized I could cut the Cubs paper and use it on both sides of the LO.  Kind of a *duh* moment.  Why didn't I ever think of using pre-designed paper that way before????'  Well, that was all it took for the rest of the LO to come together. I sliced into the large baseball and tucked the photo into it. I love using the "baseball" stitch, and was happy to be able to add it here.  With so many photos and pre-embellished paper, lots of extra embellishments weren't necessary, so I just played into the theme and added the baseball 'gear'.  Is it my most artistic LO? No, but it is clean and tells a great story.

I hope yo will create a LO using your old stuff and post it over at About a Boy

Supplies:
PP-Making Memories, the Sports Collection
Thread-DMC
Stitch template-Bazzil In Stich'z
Brads-Recollections, KI Memories
Cubs embellies-EK Success
Alpha-Thickers

Fun Stuff

This month really did not go as planned. I was really excited to be a part of LOAD. It's the only one this year I would be able to do. I quickly got side tracked and have found it hard to recover.  What I mean is, I found it hard to get back to a LO a day.  The good thing is, I've been able to scrap. I've even had large chunks of time to do multiple pages, just not a LO a day.  I decided that my goal was to still complete 28 LO's this month, and I will actually meet this goal.

One reason I will meet this goal is Sketches in Thyme.  I used all 3 sketches this month!  Here I used Sketch #103.  I had laid these photos out in 57 different designs, and never even thought to try them this way.

I used my standard 4x6 photos, so I chose to use photos in place of the multiple blocks of PP on the left side of the LO.  The last panel on the right became my journaling block.  I used some very old PP (some so old they have no manufacturer name on them) and my new banner die to create the banner under the photos.  I'm not a great sports photographer.  There were lots of busy photos and patterns, so I chose to leave the embellishing to a minimum.

Supplies:

PP-Echo Park, paper Pizzazz, Karen Foster, unknown

Title Sticker-Sports Company

Banner Die-Sizzix

die cut-Echo Park

CS-Bazzill

This LO is the Club CK Jan/Feb Issue Challenge #9-Shapes are Everywhere.  My shape to show is Stars.  I use stars all the time, but when presented with the challenge, I froze.  I had already decided to use Sketches in Thyme Sketch #101, but with my standard 4x6 photos.  I just had to figure out the rest.  Well, washi tape to the rescue.  I bought the coordinating tape that went with these papers, so the colors were perfect.  Not only that, the stars on the tape brought all the colors together.

These photos make me laugh.  He's always been curious, and a bit mischievous as well. 

Supplies:

CS-Bazzill

All other supplies-MME

Alphas-October Afternoon, Thickers

You & Me

I am so happy to say that not only am I now caught up on LOAD, I also got to participate in this week's Issue Challenge at Club CK, while using sketch #102 from Sketches in Thyme!   Woo Hoo for scrap time while I have family visiting. ok, the truth is, the scrapping is keeping me sane.

Here it is, the LO I created.  The LOAD prompt was a LO about your honey.  Perfect. That fit right into the Club CK Issue Challenge of creating a 'Valentine' page, with non-traditional product.

I used my phone to take the photo, so it isn't that great.  I love Sketches in Thyme sketch #102, and knew it was right for this photo.  After looking at the colors in the photo, I grabbed some leftover papers from my Scrapbook Generation kit.  To be honest, I didn't love them, and would not have purchased them for myself.  I guess that is part of the challenge of a kit club.  You don't always love everything that you receive, but try to use the stuff anyway. I combined them with some papers I had from the same manufacturer and am really pleased with the result.  A few small embellishments was all it needed.  Glitter is glitter, pink or not.  Being able to use some here makes me happy.

Supplies:

Papers and Twine-MME

Wood veneer-Studio Calico

Alphas-DIY Thickers

Glitter-Martha Stewart on Thickers

Stickles on the wood veneer

Are you Ready....?

Somehow I am managing to keep up with things.  I know that when I have more to do, I get more done...I'm even catching up on LOAD.  Counting this LO, I will only be 2 behind!  Woo Hoo

Anyway, it's time for another challenge at About a Boy.  Today's challenge?  Create a LO with an infant photo of one of the men in your life.  See, that's a challenge for me.  I've already scrapped them.  So I went back and scrapped a favorite photo of my older son.  The cool thing about this is the hobby itself has changed so much, that the products I used today, were not even remotely available when I scrapped these photos the first time.  And no, I will never go back and re-do my older pages.  He was about 4-5 months old in these photos and they just screamed this title....

For this page, I used sketch #82 at Inspired Blueprints.  A simple but really usable sketch.  The original had one photo, but I added a second, keeping the main design the same.  I just wanted to showcase the photos.  He was such a fun, happy baby. He let us do just about anything with him. Oh, and those huge, blue eyes are still a show stopper today, almost 13 years later.

So think about a favorite infant photo of your guy that you'd like a second chance to scrap and come on over to About a Boy to play along.

Supplies:

PP and twine-Jillibean Soup

CS-Bazzill

alphas/ words-October Afternoon, Authentique, Sassafrass

Footballs-MAMBI

Raspberry Bliss

Well, I am officially off my game. I got in the first 3 days of LOAD, then fell off the train. Something came up and that was that.  So I don't do a page a day, but I will be able to catch up and finish the month with 28 completed LO's.  They may not be on prompt, but they'll be finished.

That leads me to today's page.  It's my turn again at Child's Play Challenges.  It's the Art Supply Challenge: Doilies.  Yes, that's right. Doilies. I laughed. Thankfully, I had a kit I received from my Paper Mania group at Ben Franklin.  Between that and Inspired Blueprints Sketch #81, I had just the kind of things I needed to complete this assignment.

I even get to add it to LOAD #4, a smell.  We went raspberry picking last summer. I tried my hand at making jam and baking a pie. The house smelled so good.  I like to joke about my alter ego "Betty", and boy did she show up on that day. But I can't wait until this summer to do it all over again.

There you have it. Pink and doilies on a page I created. 

All supplies are MME except the washi tape-Darice and Alpha letters-October Afternoon

LOAD 2 & 3

Some unexpected things fell in my lap well after signing up to do LOAD this month. I'm going to do my best to keep up with both the LO's and blog posts, but it just may not happen.

LOAD2-  Describe your perfect day.  I did a page about my husband.  I didn't describe his perfect day.  I created a a page celebrating an accomplishment that was perfect for him. He was asked to work hard, and that if he did, he would be recognized for his efforts. He did, and he was rewarded in front of his peers and leaders.  He asked me not to post it online, so I have a portion of the page to share.

My idea was to take the same photo and print it 3 ways to show how he was trying to make a difference.

Supplies: 

PP-MME, AC; embellies-AC, word stickers-Theresa Collins; stencils-Crafters Workshop; spray mist-Mister Huey

LOAD3--Focus on an important but overlooked item.  I decided to focus on....ME.  I get so busy and focused on my family, that I don't take care of me. Oh, and yes, I did read The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin...

Again it was one of those days where I didn't get to begin until 7pm, but I was able to get 'er done.  Everything on the page is the Fancy Pants 'Be You' collection.  I purposely bought it to use for pages about me.  It's the only time I ever get to use pink!   I decided to try a new place this month, SWAT and their first challenge was to get out from behind the camera...so I did,

LOAD 1 / Summer Lovin'

Weekends.  Weekends are not for free time for me....so even though I have 2 LO's finished from Friday, this is the first chance I've had to sit down to write about them! One of them anyway...

It's Feb, which means my annual attempt at LOAD.  I got day one finished at 8pm.  The prompt?  a wordless page.  Use products that enhance the photo so words are not necessary. Yeah, you try that.  It was hard.  So I decided to challenge myself to create the mood on the page, but then I added a title and journaling afterwards.

Anyway, I was so happy to be able to use a sketch #99 from Sketches in Thyme. I loved this sketch when I saw it. Of course I had to use my signature 4x6 instead of smaller photos.  It worked out well. I  also put my own spin on Frosted Designs weekly challenge to use at least one heart and the word love  on the page. I'm not one to do pink and girly Valentine pages.  This is for sure different.

This is how it looked when I added it to the LOAD gallery. (like I said, 8pm, so very nad, very dark photo).  Happy photos needed some bright happy products. I think I accomplished this.  Lots of Washi Tape, bright background and fun bold colored polka dot paper.  I thought about creating a sun, but didn't want to fight with the banner, so I just created the twine circle instead.

I added a title and some journaling. I couldn't just leave it alone....

Supplies: CS-The Paper Co 

PP-Pebbles

Washi tape-Recollections, Queen & Co, WRMK, 7 Gypsies

Stickers-AmyTangerine/AC

Twine-Doodlebug

Alphas-Thickers/AC

beads-random